A Breeze in the Desert
by Fleeting Illicit Delicious
Summary: AE. AU. Atemu goes on a journey through a desert riddled with thieves and treachery. More than trying to get through the desert, he tries to discover himself along the way, leading him to the very edge of his life and soul.


Disclaimer: Kazuki Takahashi owns Yugioh and I do not.

-

A/N: I once read an excerpt in a travel magazine:

_A breeze in the desert is like a kiss between secret lovers. Fleeting, illicit, delicious._

Those words were very inspirational on my username, on who I was as a person. Years later, they still are.

A sense of adventure is the commonest sense I know and what better way to do it than with an AE AU YGO fic. Because even though we can't go on a trip to Ancient Egypt ourselves, we still get to live it through the series. Through stories, told time and time again.

And so this is a story about Atemu and trip through the desert.

-

_A Breeze in the Desert _

I stared out into the blue expanse of sky. There was a truth, somewhere in the lapiz lazuli canvas. One could look into it forever and discover time's secrets. Unless, of course, one was confined to a caravan at most hours.

It was part of my study as Prince of Egypt to visit the Southern Kingdom, Nubia. Had I any siblings they would have taken the journey instead and reported back what they had seen for political reasons. But I had none.

My mentor had said it was to build ties with the outer reaches, who were most susceptible to raids and revolution, as they might aid us in perils of our own. Already I could picture his humble eyes peering out from his shawl, chiding me on to accomplish the latest endeavor as Prince. And with a troop of guards, one Priest and thousands of footsteps later I was in a dry, unforgiving wasteland.

I took a deep sigh. Boredom was inevitable in the desert. I found myself retreating into my confines once again.

Comfortable fabrics littered the floors and plush and furs were strewn about. A light from a torch glowed in the middle of the tent, illuminating the tent's other inhabitant.

Seto sat there in the near darkness, brooding on his own circumstances. Like all new to the prieshood he should have been in training with a mentor by now. Instead he was accompanying me as his first task.

He acknowledged my return with a glance and said nothing.

I couldn't blame him. His first mission as a priest was to look after me just as a nurse-maid might. I imagined the laughter that this irony might have caused, but knew no one would dare laugh at the priest.

He sat in the shadows with the light occasionally flickering to reveal his cheeks and irises. His blue eyes made me feel strange for some reason. I didn't know why; most of the other priests had blue eyes which I would stare into whenever we had lengthy conversations (about the most erroneous, meticulous things). But his eyes weren't the calm, obedient, placid blue I had come to know. There was a fire in them.

The priest mumbled something and I strained to here. "What?" I asked. He glared at me and I instantly felt my anger rise.

"I said dinner should be ready soon and you should clean yourself up." His voice sounded irritated, though he tried hard to hide it from me.

He held out a conduit in front of me and took my hands in his. Then he emptied its contents onto them and began to wash them. The scent of the baths filled my nostrils for a moment, the water must have been from there. I inhaled the aroma of flowers and other fragrances, so much so it made me feel dizzy.

I missed home. There were no flowers in the desert and no baths either.

Priest Seto emptied the last of it and withdrew the conduit. I raised my hands to my face to smell more, but the fragrance was all but gone.

He gave me a weird look and I shot back one just as aggressive. With Seto it was a constant struggle for dominance. I didn't know why. The other Priests were submissive and obedient enough. They respected their boundaries well, making it seem like Seto had yet to learn his place. But I found that refreshing.

Perhaps the reason was because he was close to my own age. Or rather, it was because I had grown so used to Mahaado and Mana's friendliness and adoration. I needed something different- a challenge to prove something to myself.

Dinner was less than a normal dinner in the palace, however, I was told it was much more than most of the kingdom ate. We ate in silence, each contemplating their own ideals for the trip.

The colors were fading when I returned outside again. A chill had started to befall the desert but the sand was still warm. I sat down, digging my hands deep into the sand, and watched the changing colors of the sky. This was my favorite part of traveling here. In truth, I drudgingly abhorred going through the desert. It left me hot and dry and sometimes sick. It was a boring and miserable environment. But worst of all, it made me lonely for my life at the palace. The sunset eased me of the loneliness and drab somehow.

And of course, Priest Seto had to follow me, watchful of my every move in the hostile environment.

"Why do you you always come out here, just before night? Does the night intrigue you?" He stood there, crossing his arms. "Be warned, it is treacherous."

"It makes no difference. If I stay in the tent it would still be treacherous."

He didn't try to hide his irritableness now. Instead he clenched his fists and stalked off as far as he could go while still keeping an eye on me.

I really didn't mean to be so arrogant. It had been the heat and the walking and the dullness of the desert which made me that way. Priest Seto was the victim for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, being chosen for this job. I couldn't feel sorry for him however, something in me refused to do so, he was my one outlet for frustration against my duties. And instead of being meek around me, he chided me along as I did him. It was probably our differences that made us relate to each other more than anything else. More than anyone else.

I stared out at the sky, resting my thoughts. The stars had come out, their great concentration flooding the greater darkness. Times like these, I wanted to run away. It was always some pent up urge inside of me, to run and be freed from my duties, or rather to live my own life. To explore the people around me, in distant lands without the shroud of regality. To create bonds with them that might shine through the darkness of my lonely heart.

I stayed out there for a little while, basking in the glow of the night time.

Just like I had imagined, the light from the torch in the tent created vivid shadows when I entered it. The desert was a cruel and barren woman, my skin crawled from her coldness. I placed my arms near the fire, crawling under the fabrics on the floor.

Priest Seto entered soon after me. The flames flickered revealing the indignation in his expression. He walked to darkest part of the tent, mulling in the shadows once again.

I let out a deep sigh. I had created for myself another long night of silence.

-

When the morning came we headed out. Over sands dunes, over sand piles, over long expanses of expressionless sand. There wasn't much variation in the desert. I felt like a vagrant, though my thoughts carried me nowhere.

I had been dazing, in and out of dreams, since the sun was in the middle of the sky until there was the cry of a horse. For a second it overjoyed me. For a second, I thought it was a guard my father had sent into the desert to look for us. To revoke my trek to the foreign lands and bring me back to the palace with a swift flurry of hooves.

"One of ours?" Whispered a guard.

"No." Whispered the other one, peering into the distance.

Then my joy dissipated and I was rushed by the troop. Their sweaty backs prevented me from seeing anything.

The sound of hooves got closer until I could hear, just above the whinnies of the horse a sound of mad laughter.

"The thief king?" One of my guards said.

"It would be no other."

They drew their swords and brandished their spears and I was stuck behind them. My mind screamed, _Let me out there, let me see what's going on. I can do battle. I can defend myself._

But they would give me no opening. I could not even see the thief and his bandits from behind them. Mad laughter and the clash of weapons were all I had to go on.

"Thief! Your head shall mark my passage into the Royal Court." That was Seto's voice. Of course he would fight someone like the thief king. This was probably the most exciting prospect of being my guardian in the desert.

"We shall see priest." And I felt a surging in the air, the raw pulsing of powerful magic riding on currents. They were calling on their _kha_, their life forces, to free their monsters. But wait? Only the priests and pharaoh had the power to release their monsters. How was the thief king doing that?

I had heard stories in the court that it was not only us, the chosen, who had a right to the monsters. Those with powerful resolves, tormented souls, also had the power to awaken their monsters, call them forth, for good or ill. So the thief must be one of these, I realized. If so, I doubted Seto could defeat him alone.

My guards were now scattering, having to contend with the bandits. It was down to only a few of them now and I easily broke away without their noticing.

From this new vantage point I could see the battle. Pillars of sand lashed at both my company and my foe's. The bandits's swords sliced through the air with powerful strokes, but they were little threat to my well trained guards. In the epicenter of the battle were Seto and the thief king, their _kha_ great monsters grappling each other in the sky.

"Give it up thief. You can't defeat me!"

"I would say the same to you."

I headed in that direction.

"Prince!" One of my guards had noticed but it was too late. My feat were quicker than my mind.

I readied my _diadiankh_ and focused on the energies. The feeling, like nothing of this world, as if I were the very river and the wind, carrying currents in and of myself with my enormous conscience.

All at once I felt alive again, as if the desert, in all its vastness, could not contain me.

The feeling was short lived. A bandit stopped me in my tracks and with one resounding crack broke my _diadiankh_ to pieces. I waited for my arm to come off next but the bandit collapsed, Seto's monster having hit him with a deadly blow.

"Prince! Get out of here!" Seto scolded me and returned his focus to thief.

But I was shocked. My feet would not move. I watched the battle and nothing more.

Seto's _kha_ grappled with the thief's. Before long the monster was in its stronghold, and the creature created an eery wailing sound.

"Hmmm. You are strong, Priest." The thief king cackled, his laughter like the roll of thunder. "But it seems like I shall have this victory."

Seto gave his most common reply, a grunt and a smirk.

"Where did you learn that?" The thief asked.

"When I was a child..." He began but broke off. A shadow loomed in front of Seto and before he could move, Bakura had come up from behind him. The thief, with one swift motion, grabbed the rod and with it stabbed Seto in the stomach. It happened so fast to me, so very fast that Seto's gasp of pain didn't seem real to me. He dropped to his knees and clutching his wound, blood seeping through the fabric.

The thief king turned to me then, with maniacal eyes, his grin a sickly, beaming crescent. "And you shall have this death." He held the weapon, the dagger end of the rod over me.

But it didn't seem real to me. It all happened slowly, and I took in every insignificant sense and feeling. The sound of Seto's suffered breathing, the warm sand beneath my feet, the way the rod glinted in the last rays of sun, making it seem like it was covered with blood, or made of blood. And I only watched, seeing and feeling all these different things, unable to shut any of them out. Unable to do anything but watch my own death.

Then, all at once, flashes of white entered my vision. The guards had come back, with their spears, poised at the thief king. Had he been granted more time, the thief would have stabbed me too, or finished off Seto. But he did not, so he crept backwards to his horse, keeping his eyes on the troops at all times. In a blur he mounted his horse and coaxed the burly animal to move.

The thief dissapeared off into the desert, his strong horse galloping until he was a speck in the heat and darkness.

Then, just as suddenly Seto started up on his feet again, ready to catch the thief. I grabbed hold of his arm almost reflexively before he could break off into a sprint.

"What are you doing!?" I asked, snapping out of my delusions and yelling at him.

"I must go into the desert and kill that thief. He has stolen the rod! Why do you hold me back, Prince?" He breathed hard. Blood dripped from his wound and onto the sand creating a dark pool that the desert greedily absorbed. I stared at it, hypnotized and afraid.

"If you go out there you'll die." I spoke matter of factly, coating my fear with anger.

"You underestimate me Prince. You do not know me." He hissed.

The last rays of the sun were all but gone now, if he ventured into the desert no light would give him mercy. I could see the darkness growing in his eyes.

"And you underestimate me Priest! Do you think, because I lived in the Palace all my life I do not know the workings of the desert or nightfall? Do you think I do not know the dangers of my own country?"

"Let me go Prince." I had no choice. His body, his will, his destiny were not my own to decide.

No sooner had I loosened my grip than he took off running, undoubtedly following the thief king's trail. The guards did not follow him, it was not their place. For all my power as the sovereign son of Egypt, it was not my place either.

I could only stare off into the distance. Nightfall had come and the skies reflected the very blood that had been spilled.

What did it truly mean to be Pharaoh then? To be the leader of thousands, yet not control their very existence for their own sake. I had been brought up politically, yet this event seemed to delve far deeper than the meager court trials. It dealt with the very essence of man.

_Man is so fragile, _I reflected, _he destroys himself_. It was some saying my mentor used to say to me. The thought made me feel significantly weak all of sudden, as if I was a mere grain of sand below my very feet. I'd never in my life felt that way before and just thinking it seemed to be a blasphemy to everything I had ever learned as being the Prince and heir to Egypt.

I had to do something about Seto but more importantly I had to do something for myself.

So I waited.

The fire flickered in the dark, some of the guards and I around it, the rest keeping watch.

Seto had still not returned. By this time I knew it was hopeless. I knew it was pointless, but still, as I crept into my tent I prepared myself mentally for the journey. I would not be long. I would go in the direction Seto had went, I would follow any signs that I could. If I found him alive I would entreat him to come back. If he was dead or I did not find him at all I would return and my thoughts would be put to rest. My shame would be put to rest.

I made sure no guard was looking and crept out of the other side of my tent. I ran as soon as I was out of their sight, looking to the stars for the direction I had last seen Seto going.

I kicked up sand all around me as I ran and the sound of it kept me company. I could not have been running very long when I saw the smallest flicker of a fire at the base of some kind of cliff. As I got closer I saw human figures. I slowly made my way to it, climbing on the backside of the ledge so they wouldn't see me.

When I reached the top my hopes and fears returned with full force.

Seto had challenged the thief king to another _diaha_. The bodies of their monsters were phantoms in the firelight, looking more like shadows than anything tangible. They clashed at each other, though both monsters were too weak to deliver any of the damage they had dealt earlier.

Eventually both monsters dissipated into the darkness, as if their masters had willed them to. Both the thief king and Priest cowered on the ground, breathing hard.

"Why have you come Priest? Couldn't you see I left you alive in the desert for a reason, why did you follow your death out here?"

"You know the answer. I have come to retrieve the rod from you."

He held out the rod, glaring at it. "A pesky object. It has not revealed it's true power to me yet, or else I would have defeated you in that child's game of a _diaha_."

They hunched further in the darkness away from the light of the fire. The silence I heard was frightening. I was afraid of giving off a single breath, as if they would hear me and attack me in a blind fury.

The tension in the air seemed to be a creature all it's own, twisting back and forth like a snake, ready to strike at any moment. It bore its two fangs like a king bears his power.

I tried to concentrate on the two figures before me, until the fire weakened to a glimmer and they were shrouded in near darkness again.

There was a rustling sound before the fire illuminated the two again. The snake had struck.

I was not sure who had lunged first but both men were on the ground and throttling each other. Seto was the better fighter, smarter in his attacks and strategy, snagging the thief a couple of times and kicking powerful blows to his stomach. But it could not suffice. The thief was the stronger one, he quickly pinned Seto down, strong hands crushing Seto's throat.

"Now I'll ask you again. Why did you follow your death out here?"

"The....rod!" Seto gasped in the thief's hold.

"Surely you are not that loyal to the Pharaoh. I don't think you would despair if you showed up to the Palace with out this. No, I think you followed me out here to kill me, punish me for my sins, as you would say. So you can avenge the guards I slaughtered, but more importantly avenge the wound I inflicted on you." Seto struggled under the thief king, flailing as if to loosen the other's grasp. But it did no good, he was held down tighter. "You followed your death out of your own selfish pride, leaving the Pharaoh's only son to fend for himself out there. That's it isn't it?" He snickered.

Seto gasped some more. I knew in my heart he would die if this persisted, and I could do nothing to stop it. Fear had rendered me defenseless.

Something over came the thief king's eyes, a murky color washing in over of the pupils, like mud washing into a stream.

"I have a deal for you. I will give you back the rod if you will do my bidding." A crooked smile appeared on his lips as he said the words.

Seto kicked, unable to answer.

"So what say you?" The thief king asked. "Would you like your power, your foolish pride again, or would you rather die?" Bakura loosened his grasp on Seto's neck.

It seemed like forever to me. Seto's suffered breathing carried over the flames, straight to my ears. "I would never degrade myself to a thief, a murderer like you!" Seto muttered darkly.

At this Bakura gave an odd smile. His expression was dark, as if he knew something far beyond my and Seto's knowledge. He looked grave for a moment, chewing on his lip, an unknown statement wanting to be let out. Instead of saying anything, however, he kneeled down on Seto's chest, removing the _diadiankh_ from Setos arm and casting it aside. Then he stood up, clutching the rod in front of himself.

"Stand and I will break you." The seriousness in his expression was lost, giving way to sadism once again.

Seto lay there, breathing erratically, as if it was all he could do. The thief king looked as if he was pained too, but there was a lot more resilience in his face, he had the upper hand after all.

And then, as if he could not become any more domineering in the situation, the great from of Diabound materialized behind him.

"What do you see Priest?"

"Death." There was no fear in his voice, nor resignation. He stated it as a fact and nothing more.

The thief king bent down, until he was close to Seto's ear. "That is not what the Pharaoh sees. I know what he sees. It is neither you nor me. It is your power he wants, that is all. Why go after the rod? For the good the Pharaoh, because you are powerless and useless to him without it?"

"What the Pharaoh sees is for the good of Egypt."

Bakura cackled madly, though his laughter had a human sting to it. It sounded like it was coming from grief as opposed to amusement.

"I know that even _you_ don't believe that. The Pharaoh sees what is for the good of himself. He doesn't give a damn about Egypt."

He curled his hands around Seto's head oddly and whispered something into his ear. My skin shivered. I tried to listen but could head nothing. The thief's story was long and by the time he was finished Seto was very still, breathing silently.

The thief laughed again. "And now you see it. Your glorious Egypt, from the blood of innocents!"

I didn't try to figure out what the thief meant. As far as I was concerned thieves could only tell lies. Yet Seto seemed to believe something. Some ancient, forbidden secret that I would never know. He rose glumly and faced the thief king.

"I'll do whatever you want."

I was sure I would remember the rest of it forever.

The walk back to camp was one filled with unnerving anxiety. I was lost in my own mind and I often had to correct my steps when I found I was walking the wrong direction from where camp was. My skin chilled, though I was sure the coldness came from inside myself.

When I finally returned to the camp the guards were waiting for me. They all looked so concerned though they dared not scold me. Instead they gently prodded me with questions. Where had I been? Was I hurt? It took much to persuade them I was fine. They asked about Seto, but questions about him I was unable to answer. They eventually accepted my silence and I climbed into my tent. Alone.

The night was cold and silent and I found myself unable to sleep. I would wake from my dozing with images of blood and terrible monsters, the very events which had transpired earlier, though the images were far more frightening than the reality of them had been. Had I been fearless only a day ago? Had I imagined myself free from the very real dangers of the country I would one day rule? Had I lived my whole life underestimating everything?

I curled up in the furs listening for the faintest sounds. Something, anything to comfort my wandering mind, but I heard nothing. I dozed off once again, falling into the vice grip of nightmares.

I was not quite sure where the nightmares ended and where reality began, as if I had been thrown into some hole, a bottomless one, without a beginning or an end. I awoke to the sound of screaming but at first I did not quite believe it was real. The screams had only been in my head up until then, how could I believe they were real.

Not even when I went out to investigate the noise did I believe that any of what I saw was reality.

My guards, all of them, had been slain. Their blood painted the desert a ruddy, sickening red.

I was sure it was a nightmare.

Seto stood in the middle of the massacre, panting and bloody. He was tired and out of breath, his chest heaved up and down uneasily, revealing to me that his injuries from the fight had not yet healed.

"This was not the Thief King's doing." He glanced at me with hazy eyes.

"So am I to believe my father's Priest is just as corrupt as the thief who wounded him?" I spoke the words with anger, but it they did not sound like my words. It did not sound like me.

He shot me a weakened glare. His eyes were unfocused, no longer the color of the sky but that of a rushing river. They told me everything- of his rebellion, his pain, his indecision.

"Go Prince. Find your own way out of this treacherous desert. Unless you want the same fate as your guards." He whispered, voice thick with threat.

"Why are you doing this." I stood tall. I would not back down. I had already let him go once, I wouldn't do it again. That was my resolve. That was the only thing that linked me to reality.

"Leave!" He growled hoarsely.

"I will not!" I stomped my foot. I felt something far beyond rage, something far worse than fear. I felt that something rip inside me, like a beautiful cloth being torn. It sagged, unhinging from a place in my soul, opening a void. Releasing nothing into nothing. I felt myself waking.

"He hurt you and yet you follow him?"

"He told me the truth. Your lies are all that pains me now."

I couldn't answer back to that. I had no idea what he was talking about, yet there was true pain in his voice. Instead, I did what I thought was best- speak my true feelings, for once in my life.

"Listen to me. You do not have to believe that thief. You don't even have to believe the Pharaoh. You can do whatever you want. But don't follow a man who will bring you to your death." Were my father and the thief king all that different? My father too had men who would follow him to their death. I wondered if my father cared for each and every life lost. I wondered if I would care, when I finally had that burden.

A fury welled up in me. I grabbed Seto's wrist, much like I had done before he had run after the thief king, only this time I had a choice in the matter.

"If the Pharaoh isn't the kind of leader you want to be ruled by, then I promise you,_ I _will be that kind of man one day."

Though his eyes were hazy he looked at me with surprise. A kind of surprise that might have given me joy and hope- but Seto was far beyond that. He quickly broke free of my grasp and pushed me down into the sand. There he stood, blocking out the sun as held the rod in front of me. Again I was seeing my death, yet this time it suddenly felt real. This time I was thinking, and whether it was rage or resoluteness, I knew exactly what I had to do. "You would forsake the very people who trained you up until this moment? You would pay them back by slaughtering them? You would forsake yourself and listen the words of a thief?"

He stood there, frozen, so I stood up and faced him. I could say no more to him. He had to figure out his next course of action on his own.

An eternity seemed to pass and finally Seto's eyes returned to their lucid state. He said nothing but looked at me for a very long time, deliberating. There was a storm in his mind but he seemed stolid and cool.

He glared at me with a look of determination, then, all at once he had climbed on a horse and sped away.

-

I could not stay at the camp site. There was too much death. I walked around the desert aimlessly, carrying only what was necessary. I would sink into the shadow of the sand dunes when it got too hot. There I would try to sleep but be awakened by nightmares all too real. Seto, the thief king and things I couldn't explain.

I tried not to think about Seto, but memories of him kept coming back to me. I couldn't quite render what I felt. Anger. Sadness. Regret. They all washed into one like the sand under me.

-

On the second day the sand was abrasive against my skin. I rolled my tongue on the sand that blew in my mouth. I let it slide against my teeth. My head burned and my eyes teared, but I ignored it.

I was exhausted and dehydrated. I laid down and did not know if I would get back up again.

There was an emptiness in my stomach, but the greater void was in my heart.

-

On the third day I couldn't feel anything anymore. I supposed the emptiness had just emptied itself, like how small puddles of water seep through desert sand, lost forever. Everything was numb.

_He_ came to me then. A lithe figure in my somber landscape. At first he was just a shadow of a silhouette against the horizon, but gradually he took form.

"Why don't you accept that it's the end?" His voice was cold and ancient, much like the moan of the wind.

My voice caught in my throat and I was unable to speak. Though eventually, the words flowed from my mouth like rose colored water. "Because it doesn't _feel_ like the end to me. It feels like there is still more I can do."

He faced me with eyes like blue blurs, cynical and domineering. "And if this isn't the end? Then what? Will you go back to Egypt, back to your people and rule over them someday? Become the king everyone hopes for?"

The answer seemed so obvious, yet I couldn't bring it into words. How could I rule over all those people when I couldn't even get one person to listen to me?

He continued. "Or you could run away. Become a beggar, a merchant- anything. You could free yourself from responsibility if you get out of here alive. No one could stop you then. You could even become a thief."

Anger flared up in me at those words. "I would never become a thief, for as long as I live. I would never steal anything, I would never harm anyone-" But I stopped at those words. I was going to have to harm people in my life, as Pharaoh or as anyone. People had already suffered and died because of me. Even _I _wanted to kill that thief, to steal his life. I couldn't stop suffering or death. Even my reign was to begin with the death of another.

"Hah. You can't even finish your sentences. Maybe I should have killed you when I had the chance."

"Then why didn't you? Why don't you?" My anger flared up again, incinerating my doubt.

He merely laughed and faded from my vision like a god of the desert.

I lay there, the conversation playing in my head over and over again. I was looking for something in my words, in _his_ words, to explain some inexplicable part of me. An answer to thrive on. I couldn't think of anything.

My body felt as heavy as a stone, unmovable under a calm river. Far under. I looked out into the blue. The blue sky, the color that hadn't changed. It was the same as before, just as vivid and just as beautiful, but my enthusiasm in describing it had abated. It would still be the same sky many, many years from now. Even when it grew too bright for me to peer into it.

I was a fool to think that _he_ would answer any of my questions.

-

I was saved by some Nubians on the fourth day. They had known that the Prince of Egypt would be coming, so they had been scouting the desert in hopes of catching a glimpse of his caravan. They recognized me by my many adornments and because they had heard the Prince of Egypt had very interesting hair.

They received me in a praising fashion, despite the fact that I was near unconscious when they took me to one of their villages. There I was given all the water and service I ever could have wanted. They looked after me in such a fashion I was reminded of home. There would be no more wandering out into the desert for me. I was lucky enough that on my second day with them I was able to walk again. The desert had drained me of most things, but in the end it could not take me.

Many questions arose from my appearance in the desert. Why was I not with any guards? Why had I been I been seemingly left to die? I told them everything, but I left out Seto. Whenever it came to him my mouth suddenly felt dry, as if sand had been stuffed into it.

After my health fully returned I was treated to feasts and celebrations. Shimon had regarded Nubia as one of our friendliest allies, and I was witness to all their hospitality.

It was only after a few days that the festivities started to calm down that I was allowed a real look into fellow territory. Some Egyptian guards had arrived in Nubia early just for my arrival and I was thankful for something familiar. I slept easier and dreamt of nothing.

-

One morning I woke early. Something was pulling me out of my sleep, out of my shelter and into the outside.

The morning was a particular gray. Only the animals were scattered around, eating whatever they found. I walked to the entrance of the village then out of it and then I kept on walking.

I heard a roaring far off in the distance and decided to follow the sound. It was only after I concentrated on this direction that my thoughts became clear. When the sun rose and scattered the morning mist I saw him.

Seto. Walking towards me, no emotion playing on his face and rod firmly in hand. For a moment I thought that I hadn't been lost in the desert. That the thief kind had never come. I thought that this had become part of his regular routine, to walk early in the morning while I slept off the night's feast. Like we were back to the way we were before.

But no. I had gone through too much. I would not forget. Even if I was the only person in the world who remembered the ordeal, I would never forget.

I continued to walk and he joined me.

I did not ask what had happened to him in the desert. I did not ask how he got the rod back or however it was he found me. I sensed the thief was still alive somewhere and I did not ask him why.

Instead, I conjured up all my courage and asked him the one thing I was yearning to know.

"Have you come back?" I tried to hide every emotion I felt, but somehow everything came pouring out. I was weak, but I held my ground, continuing on my path.

"I have." His voice was no different from usual, his emotions covered as skillfully as a warrior.

To me his answer seemed to affirm that he was was real. I looked at him and he looked back at me, his face and features were still the same. He looked tired and nothing more.

Another question hit me at that point and I did not hesitate to ask it.

"Did you speak to me in the desert?"

He faced forward. His eyes grew darker for a moment. "There are some things better left as mirages, Prince."

I had no way of knowing if I had I left Seto the corrupted or Seto the Priest back in the desert. No. That wasn't it. This was Seto. Just Seto. Neither holy nor evil or sane for that matter. I supposed he preferred that ambiguous space between.

"You know one day I shall have to kill that thief." I told him leaving slightest bit of conviction in my voice. He deserved my honest feelings.

His expression remained grave, unmoving, as he stared out into the distance.

"What side will you choose on that day?" I asked softer this time.

He thought for a moment, still and pensive. At last a languid smile appeared on his face, but no answer ever came out. As if there was no need for one. As if I already knew it.

-

We walked in silence for a while, leaving me time to dwell in my thoughts. The events that had transpired seemed like a dream from one vantage point, like reality from another. Perhaps they were mixed in with both, as if I had been dreaming while awake, living amongst my dreams. To threads wound into the same elegant tapestry known as life.

I had lost something in the desert which I could not quite define. A certain heaviness I had felt all my life was gone. I was free of something but at the same time I felt that I had been given another weight to carry, a heavier one, which, like a memory, I would never be free of.

Seto looked like that too. Like something had been stolen from his eyes, and yet now they shined with a new clarity, a hopeful, keen lucidity that he would never be free of.

But people were only free if they believed they were free, and he, especially, did not believe. Somewhere between duty and honor and religion he had lost his freedom. Perhaps I had no freedom either. Perhaps I had never had it at all.

At last I saw it. The sea. It was like the Nile, but with so much more chaos, so much more power. I found it refreshing. Like him.

The breeze was strong but not harsh, carrying water droplets with it onto my face. We basked in the ocean spray for a while, standing motionless against the wind. It was the greatest solace I had felt the whole time.

I stared out at it until I wasn't really looking at it anymore. My eyes trailed to the horizon and then beyond.

"Shall we go back now?" He asked at length. He said the words neither out of servitude or defiance. Just like he had always done.

THE END

-

Thank you for reading. I wrote this fic over a long period of time, writing it and then leaving it and then writing it again. Although it's an adventure, its not so much one on land as it is onw in the mind. In relationships. Atemu is the character I've been avoiding writing forever because I never thought I could get him quite right. Even after 224 episodes, he is still a mystery to me. I suppose that is the way he was intended to be, just as we may never know the actual going-ons of the actual Ancient Egypt (my fic isn't historically accurate by the way), but then, do we even know ourselves that much? It's the eternal, internal question and that's what I wanted to portray with this fic: Who are we? You may never know.

Tell me what you think. Your words are wonderful to hear.


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